Somali is one of the most widely spoken Cushitic languages. The exact number of speakers is unknown because Somali has been spread worldwide. However, there are about 8 million speakers in Somalia and another 13 million in other countries. Because the language was heavily influenced by Arabic, English and Italian, it has been written with four different scripts: an Arabic-based, Latin-based, and two native alphabets, the Osmanaya script and the Borama script. The Latin alphabet is used today. Somali can be divided into three main dialects: Northern Somali, Benaadir Somali, and Af-Ashraaf Somali. The standard Somali is based on the Northern...
The Slovenian language is one of the South Slavic languages and spoken by 2.5 million people worldwide. It is the official language of Slovenia and is also one of the 23 official languages of the European Union since 2004. Until the 16th century, there were many dialects within the Slovene language. However, those dialects have since been unified into one language. Then, in the 19th century, the unified language was officially...
Slovak or Slovakian is one of the official languages of the European Union since 2004. It belongs to the West Slavic group of languages, which includes Czech, Polish, Silesian, Slovincian and Sorbian. Due to geographical reasons, these neighbouring countries have influenced each other and shared a great part of their history. Slovak is spoken mainly in the Slovak Republic by about 7 million people. In 1993, when Czechoslovakia split into Slovakia and the Czech Republic, the Slovak language became the official language of Slovakia. Slovak dialects can be divided into four main groups: Eastern Slovak, Central Slovak, Western Slovak and Lowland. The standard language is the Central dialect because it is taught in schools and commonly used for official...
Sinhala is an Indo-European language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch, though it has been influenced by members of the Dravidian language group. Sinhala is one of two local languages on the island country of Sri Lanka and spoken by 16 million people. Because Sri Lanka is a small island and Sinhala is not used elsewhere, it has some unique features that are not found in any other Indo-Aryan language.Sinhala has its own script and writing style which is considered a derivation of the Indian Brahmi language. Like other Indian languages, its origin can be traced back more than 2000...
The Serbian language is part of the Slavic language family with 10 million speakers. Serbian dialects can be divided into two main groups: Shtoktavian and Torlakia. The standard language in Serbia is based on the Shtoktavian dialect. Serbian is strongly influenced by Turkish. In fact, within the language, there are around 8000 words of Turkish origin. One feature of the Serbian language is that it is the only European language that uses both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. Since 2006, the Cyrillic alphabet is the official script in...
There are an estimated 21 million people in the world who speak Sindhi. It is primarily spoken in Pakistan and India where it is an official language. Sindhi can be categorized into six major dialect groups. Of the six, Vicholi is used as the standard dialect because it is widely accepted as the education and administration language in Sindh,...
